Michelle DaCruz
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 01/01) - There's no doubt in today's world the field of nursing is on the move.

Keeping up with technology and coping with staff shortages that plague our health care system are daily duties facing registered nurses here in the North.

Always on the go. Pat O'Connor, president and owner of Medflight has to respond to all emergency calls within 30 minutes.

Next week is National Nursing Week. In honour of their profession, and the 743 nurses who are committed to nursing in the North, three veteran nurses have taken the time to share their stories with Yellowknifer.

Sylvia Malloy: Stanton O.R. Nurse

Sylvia Malloy's best and worst day in the operating room revolved around a stab wound, a teenage boy, and a plug in a hole.

The accidental knifing was just shy of the boy's heart.

"It was frightening. We were all very nervous," Malloy says.

She watched as the doctor on duty cracked the rib cage, plugged the hole in the tissue with his finger and sewed around the opening. As he stitched he slowly removed the digit, pulled the slack from the suture and the wound was closed.

"There was a happy ending. The boy came back to say, 'Hi,'" Malloy says.

The Giant mine disaster in 1992 was also a time that Malloy remembers well.

"We brainstormed and decided that if people started coming in, we had to be ready to go," Malloy said.

"We had extra supplies, the theatres (operating rooms) were ready and then nothing happened. Everyone was gone."

Malloy came to Yellowknife during the recession in the early 1980's.

Before that she had studied in her home province of Saskatchewan, also in Alberta, and has had a varied nursing career, working in areas like labour and delivery to orthopaedics.

She worked at Stanton for six years before becoming an operating room nurse in 1988. "I moved to O.R. because I found the 12- hours shifts I had been working gruelling on my family. In the O.R. I was afforded eight-hour days," says Malloy, who has three daughters.

Although operating room nurses work five days a week, they are also on call nights and weekends. This works out to be about one weekend and one set of weekdays a month.

"The advantage of being on-call is you can bank the time for your holidays. But it is also stressful and tiring," she admits.

The longest day Malloy can remember working lasted almost 19 consecutive hours. When a nurse reaches her limit, there are precautions she can take.

"There is an unwritten rule you can follow if you feel unsafe. You can say 'I truly can't come.' Not too many would do it though, but if you did, someone would definitely cover for you," says Malloy.

Within the operating room, or theatre as Malloy likes to call it, the operating room nurses rotate within three specific roles.

The circulating nurse verifies the patient's consent to have the surgery, both orally and in writing.

This nurse also alleviates the patient's concerns by explaining the procedure and answering their questions.

Choosing the instruments preferred by each surgeon, handing the tools to the doctor during the surgery and cleaning up the patient afterwards are some of the roles of the scrub nurse.

The assistant nurse lends a hand wherever she is needed.

Malloy explains there is one main priority of all operating room nurses.

"We are patient advocates. When patients are unconscious, we speak on their behalf," she said.

Malloy is planning to leave Yellowknife by mid-summer.

She is 58 now but hopes to work one year down south and then retire by 60.

The veteran nurse's advice on how to improve the health care system in the NWT is simple.

"The hospital must bring back Northern allowances like travel bonuses. We are losing doctors and nurses," says Malloy. "Our health care system is great but we need people to carry it out."

Cathy Patton: Oncology Nurse

Bearing witness to miracles is Cathy Patton's job in the medical day care unit of Stanton hospital. As a certified oncology nurse, Patton sees chemotherapy extend cancer patients lives.

"If you get hit by a bus there is no time for grieving, no time to say goodbye to family and friends. With cancer there is a chance to do that," Patton says. "Chemotherapy can buy you months or years of a quality life."

Patton makes sure to point out that it is imperative for the patient to weigh the risks of the treatment, against the benefits.

Along with chemotherapy the unit also offers cardiac stress testing, heart monitoring, internal scopes, and minor surgeries.

Wearing more than one hat is Patton's specialty. She has to as head of a unit that handled over 2,000 cases in the last fiscal year. She is also a palliative care nurse.

"I am sometimes consulted about caring for people who are dying. Often times these people have cancer," she says.

Patton has been heading up the unit since its inception 10 years ago.

Many staff members have come and gone, while Patton and the original doctor have been constants.

This could be the reason Patton is so careful in how she describes her job.

"I have a huge emotional attachment to this department," Patton says. "It is really important that things are worded carefully because my relationship with patients is integral."

Patton admits her biggest challenge as an oncology nurse is when friends become patients and patients become friends.

She has acquired a lot of friends, from living in Yellowknife for two years during high school, then returning in 1991 to work at Stanton.

Living on the Ingram Trail, reading voraciously and gourmet cooking for company helps Patton deal with the challenges of her work day.

"You are exhausted by the end of the day -- physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally. It is a challenge to find a balance," admits Patton.

Somehow Patton, who also has two children, has managed. When people ask her how she can do this type of work, she responds with no hesitation.

"My answer is somebody has to do this. If I can make a difference in that part of the journey for someone then for me it is worth it," she muses.

Pat O'Connor: Flight Nurse

Pat O'Connor pauses and calmly explains where Yellowknife is in relation to Texas.

"We are located in the arctic. It can be a harsh climate," she says into her cell phone.

The caller, a flight nurse from Texas, is inquiring about a job opening he found online for a part-time flight nurse for her company, Medflight.

He hasn't done his homework, but she doesn't point that out.

Patience is a necessary attribute for flight nurses. So is the ability to be flexible, assertive, and confident.

O'Connor possesses all these, plus a head for business. As president and owner of Medflight she is always on call and never in short supply of paperwork.

Like most health care professions, flight nursing also suffers from the staffing shortages rampant around the world.

"We have to compete for staff like anywhere else. Most of my staff is from outside of Yellowknife. I have one girl from England, but many are Canadians," she says.

O'Connor has been a flight nurse since 1977. She has been integral in developing both the first medical flight crew in Ontario and the NWT. After getting her nursing diploma, O'Connor was one of six nurses asked to join Ontario's premier flight team based out of Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto.

By 1985 she was on her way to Yellowknife, to start the St. John Ambulance air ambulance program. Prior to its inception, all medevacs were performed by public health nurses. O'Connor tried to take a break from the fast-paced profession and spend some time with her family but was approached to start her own company and by 1991 Medflight was born.

The company services the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut, remote communities across the NWT and Yellowknife. The three pressurized turbo prop planes are provided by Air Tindi on contract with Stanton Regional Hospital. The company flies an average of 75 flights per month.

O'Connor says flight nursing is similar to emergency nursing in every way except for an uncontrolled environment.

"You have weather issues, mechanical problems, and all these things impact your day," said O'Connor. "There is a lot of waiting, which requires patience, and a lot of running."

Flight nursing can take its toll on the family. Their schedules are erratic, since they are on call, and must to be ready to respond within 30 minutes of a page. Also most calls come after 3 p.m. and on weekends and holidays. Her nine-member team is scheduled 40 hours a week, usually in three-day blocks, but O'Connor is on call all the time.

"When my kids were young, my husband looked after the house and them," says O'Connor.

"You have to have that kind of support to do this job. Your family must be behind you 100 per cent."

Patient relations are also similar to regular nursing, with one huge exception.

"You can't leave the room," she laughs.

Flight nurses keep the environment quiet, and talk to the patient, providing education about the procedure they will have done.

Flight nurses have even been known to stay with the patient for as long as they need to feel secure.

"We are from the North so they trust us."